Mr Charles
by Efcia
Summary: Charles seduces, Arthur thinks too much, Eames is jealous, Cobb's amused and can't hide it, and Erik is one huge secret.


„Cobb, I want you not to laugh."

Arthur took a quick glance on the surroundings. An innocent look from Eames made him sigh.

"You too, Eames. Despite everything I'll be very serious."

Cobb nodded, encouraging him to continue with a gesture.

"As we perfectly know the problem with our new mark is simple, but there's no simple solution to it. We can't any useful information and working in a complete darkness is too risky", Arthur said.

"Yes, we have to be enlighten, not that we are working on that for about three weeks now.", Eames interrupted with a smirk.

Arthur glared on him, but didn't waste his time on remarks. "I believe, thought, that I found a solution."

It made Cobb raise his head. "What kind of solution?"

Arthur took a deep breath. That was the moment he feared the most.

"A telepath".

What Arthur always hated the most was a failure. No matter how complicated the problem was, the point man always wanted to find a perfect solution.

And he had been successful in that. Until this case.

Their new mark was a commission from the government, which wasn't anything unique. They worked with the people form government before, even if usually without Eames.

What was unique though was a complete lack of information about their new mark. Even their client couldn't give them the most basic information, like age or nationality.

Of course it all made Cobb crazy about this job.

Arthur always suspected that Cobb is slightly addicted to adrenaline.

Anyway, they took it, they found (or rather Arthur did) Eames in some collapsing casino in north Russia, stitched his head and brought him to England.

All of this to achieve nothing.

Their mark could as well never exist; Arthur's search never was much precise and thorough. There was absolute zero information and a living, breathing (and very handsome, in some rough, slightly predatory way, if someone asked) man.

They could try kidnapping him and improvise, but it's not how the best trio in the Dream business works.

Giving up also wasn't an option. So Arthur gave his search another direction.

And he found his solution, perfect and clean, exactly as always.

He just hoped it would work.

The flat he was looking for wasn't far away from the university, the house located in nice and quiet part of the city. It would be hard to make anything unusual and not be noticed by neighbors, Arthur decided with a sigh and knocked to the door. The only answer was silence.

Arthur bites his lips in frustration. It seemed like the whole world was against them, from the very beginning of this case!

He turned back, when suddenly the door cracked open. One short glance told Arthur that the slightly disheveled and not entirely awake man is the one he was looking for.

"Charles Xavier, I hope", he said, stretching out his hand. "My name is Arthur Gibson."

Charles shook his hand, suddenly looking much more alive and conscious, his blue eyes watching the point man carefully.

"So how can I help you?", he asked.

"Something tells me you already know the answer to your question.", Arthur responded, never taking his eyes from the other man's face.

"Right…", Charles said slowly. "Come in then, don't mind the mess."

Arthur almost tripped on the stack of books on their way toward the kitchen, but he managed to notice a couple of things.

First of all: Charles was traditionalist; there was an ancient-looking typewriter standing on his desk.

Also, he was a bookworm, with a wide range of literature interests.

And he had a cat; a beautiful, obviously completely spoiled cat, which black fur flashed with blue in the morning sun and yellow eyes were fixed on Arthur.

"It's Raven", Charles said and gestured the point man to sit. "Coffee, tea?"

"Can't you just checked yourself?"

"Mr. Gibson, or rather Mr. Callahan, don't you think it would be a wasting of my gift?", Charles laughed.

"You don't seem bothered by my visit.", Arthur observed, feeling that the rather short man, with bright blue eyes can be his the toughest opponent ever.

"Well, using my gift to check whether the visitor want to kill me or offer me a job, very interesting I have to admit, definitely isn't the waste of it."

Arthur smiled, against his best will.

"You won.", he admitted. "And coffee would be wonderful."

"So you're working for the government…", Charles said, while making a coffee. With some surprise Arthur discovered the telepath was an owner of coffee mugs identical with Eames's ones.

He forced back this thought, although it took a considered amount of effort.

"In this particular case- yes. Usually we are working for private clients. You know how Extractors work, right?"

"More or less.", Charles shrugged. "Sometimes is hard to say, how much of what journalist write is truth and what is only their rich imagination."

"Could you just take the important information from my mind?", Arthur asked, feeling a sudden rush of excitement. Sure, Charles was in his mind before, when he checked Arthur's purpose of visit, but still the idea of seeing the actual telepath during the work was too tempting. And it would spare them the long explanation.

"You actually want me to do this?", Charles looked shocked. "People usually are less welcoming. And this time I have to go deeper, knowledge doesn't lay just under the surface, not like personality or motives. You can, well… feel me."

"Go ahead.", Arthur nodded his head and leaned on the backrest of the chair.

Charles, still slightly unsure touched his temple with two fingers of his left hand.

For a moment it seemed like nothing really happened, but then bright blue eyes of telepath widened and Arthur gasped, sensing some sort of warm, lightly buzzing _presence_ in his mind. It lasted no more than a second and soon Charles was sitting with his hand resting on the table top.

"It's truly amazing.", he said, with delight. "I allowed myself also to check the information about the job. If I understand correctly you want me to find out everything about his man, that can be useful", he added quickly, a sheepish smile on his face. "I'm in, just give me three days to find a replacement in my job."

"Great. Wonderful.", Arthur said genuinely. He was really looking forward to work with this man. "Just one more thing. Do you need to be face-to-face with your mark?"

"My ma..", Charles stopped. "No, not necessarily, although I prefer to. It also allows me to work faster and more effectively."

"Then you'll meet him.", Arthur decided.

He left soon after, with a promise of phone call as soon as Charles would be ready.

Now he needed only to convince Cobb and Eames he's not crazy.

"A telepath…", Eames repeated after a short pause filled with profound silence. "Arthur, darling, don't you think you worked too hard last weeks?"

Cobb just looked at him with kind of father worry in his eyes.

Arthur sighed and tossed a file one the desk.

"That's the proof number one. The proof number two should arrive here within a half an hour."

Eames took the file and flipped through the pages.

"Charles Francis Xavier, born in New York City, age 25… Blah, blah, that's interesting part: abilities: telepathy: mind reading and control, memory alteration, mental bolts, induced paralysis, illusion casting, astral projection.", Eames stopped and looked at Arthur.

"Knowing you this information are legit. But since they are, shouldn't you speak to us first and then invite some mutated fellow to work with us?", Cobb spoke at least, obviously not delighted with the idea of telepath around him.

"Something you want to hide, Cobb?", Eames drawled with a usual smirk and leaned on the backrest with an expression of happy cat. "Fine for me, of course if he really can do anything from this list."

"I know he can do the first thing.", Arthur answered with an elegant shrug.

"You let him read you mind?", suddenly Eames was no longer so relaxed.

"Yes, Eames and before you add anything else let me remind you I'm able to decided whether I can trust somebody or not."

The forger looked like he was about to protest, but the knock in the door never let him.

It was Arthur who unlocked the door and let in the telepath, who was now completely soaked with the heavy rain and looked way too young and innocent as for a person potentially so dangerous.

Both Cobb and Eames stared at him with disbelief.

Charles sighed and took off the soaked jacket.

"I'm sorry I'm not looking like an extremely dangerous mutant and I don't have a tail.", he announced and took a seat behind the desk.

"I can see that you believed Arthur, which is nice, but I'd rather not leave any doubts.", he added and take a quick glance at Arthur, who shrugged and then nodded his head, as if saying: "that's your part, act."

"Obviously the only way to convince you completely is to use my gift on one of you. And I promise this will be the first and only time.", Charles said and fixed his blue eyes on Eames. It relaxed Cobb, who smiled suddenly.

"Give me his first name and you'll be a part of team.", he said.

Charles raised one eyebrow but didn't comment.

"Benedict.", he said a heart-beat later. "And Dominic as the middle name."

Eames looked horrified, but Cobb obviously couldn't stop smiling.

"Well, it explains a lot.", he started but the forger didn't let him finish.

"You can make this whole job in a couple of seconds.", he said, looking at Charles. "You can just read his mind and find out whether he has the information or not."

Charles tilted his head to the right. "Yes I can", he admitted. "But I won't. And I don't think anyone of you would like me to do this."

Eames raised his eyebrow. "I can believe what I'm hearing.", he said in a total disbelief.

"It would be dangerous.", Arthur suddenly said. "People would find out about Charles."

"Arthur, there's a file on him! You found it yourself!"

"It was well hidden, in a place very few people know about."

They both looked at Charles, who shrugged. "In fact I was sure I cleaned everything.", he admitted. "Seems I was wrong."

"So we can safely assume we are the only people who know about your talent?", Cobb asked, finally losing somewhere his amusement.

"Yes.", Charles answered shortly and then sighed. "I can see you need time to rethink the whole case. I'll wait outside."

He closed the door behind himself before anyone could protest.

"It seems I really worked too hard.", Arthur spoke in amazement. "It never occurred to me that he can do all this job alone."

Cobb stood up and came to the window. "It doesn't surprise me. The whole telepathy thing is so strange, it's hard to wrap your mind around it. But I don't think he lies, being discovered is truly too risky for him."

"A successful but short-lived career.", Arthur agreed.

Eames just shook his head in irritation.

"You simply want to believe him.", he said in accusatory tone. His eyes were fixed on Arthur, despite Cobb obviously shared the point man's opinion.

The extractor left the room unnoticed.

It was still raining, although less than earlier. Charles stood under the tree, trying to look not so cold as he surely was. His fingertips were unhealthy blue and wet hair stuck to his forehead.

He strangely reminded Arthur in the age of twenty.

Probably this resemblance was what made Cobb said, what he said.

"They are arguing, but Arthur usually wins when it comes to job."

"Oh.", the telepath answered and glanced at Cobb, the blue of his eyes almost too intense to be real.

"I just want to use my talent, try something new and not lose anything.", he said desperately.

Extractor's mind wandered for a moment to the sandy shores of Limbo.

"I don't think that all of this is possible.", he almost whispered. "But you can try."

Charles nodded his head and blew on his hands in attempt to warm them.

"Aren't you afraid of me?"

Cobb took a deep breath and put up his collar. "I could be afraid of your _gift_", he said finally. "But you should be aware I can enter your mind too, maybe in less neat way."

"There's nothing neat about telepathy!", Charles protested. "Human mind is completely chaotic; you enter it after creating a certain construction, giving it an orderliness. I can see things as they are and I can assure you: it can be beautiful but it's never neat."

The sound of opening door and Arthur calling them stopped the conversation.

As soon as Charles entered the room Eames glanced at him unfavourably.

"Tell me one thing, Arthur. How are we going to present him to our friend from the government? As our team mascot?"

"No.", it was the telepath who answered. "As a temptation."

"You mean we should tell that your job is to seduce the mark?", Eames repeated in disbelief. "I'm sorry, but you strikes me more as a person to seduce."

Charles glared at him. "You'd be surprised."

Cobb knew he should react, as the whole situation was ridiculous, but he discovered he can't. the amusement of too big and he was able only to sit and laugh quietly.

It was Arthur who showed a little of common sense and interrupted.

"It's enough for today.", he said decisively. "Charles, did you find the room in our hotel?"

The telepath nodded head.

"Great, then you'll drive, I hate this left-side driving.", Arthur tossed him car keys and pretended not to see Eames hurted expression.

"You could ask me."

"You don't have the driving license."

"I have five!", Eames protested.

"Right, all of them are fake.", Arthur pointed out and closed the door.


End file.
